SEATTLE – To hear Trainer Pete Carroll and General Manager John Schneider put it down, everything is fine between the Seattle Seahawks and Russell Wilson.
And according to the team’s top two decision makers, bargaining their franchise quarterback was never really considered.
The Seahawks made Carroll and Schneider available to reporters for the first time on Wednesday since Wilson publicly voiced his frustrations with the organization in two media interviews in February. Those frustrations included all of the hits and sacks he’s taken on over his nine seasons in Seattle.
“There were some things that were said that needed to be addressed, and it was,” said Carroll. “So Russ is in a great place right now and he was in a great place in the off-season. We communicated on all of the things like I always did.”
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported in March that the Chicago Bears were pursuing Wilson “very aggressively” but were told the Seahawks were not acting at the time. When asked about the bears’ pursuit of Wilson, Schneider declined to indicate which teams inquired about his availability.
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“There were a number of teams that called after this media flash,” said Schneider. “But no, I’ve never actively negotiated with anyone or any team. Did people call? Absolutely.”
Wilson expressed frustration with passport protection in Seattle and expressed a desire to have a greater say in hiring decisions during an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show” and in a separate interview set up for the quarterback to discuss how he would become Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year. These comments were the first time he had publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the organization that drafted him in 2012.
“Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson are two of the most passionate, competitive people I know, and passionate people just say passionate things,” Schneider said. “I think it came out somehow.”
Carroll said there was no problem between the organization and Wilson, just a problem with weathering the media storm that resulted from the quarterback going public with his misfortune. When asked if Wilson’s comments violated Carroll’s # 1 rule – always protect the team – Carroll said they had “challenged” the rule.
“The conversation is out there and we wish we didn’t have to share it with the world and all of that,” he said. “You never get the clarity and the essentials when you have to operate through the media. That’s why we tried to be really quiet in all of this.”
This calm approach on the part of Carroll meant that the team did not make any statement that would have brought speculation about Wilson’s future to bed. Carroll said he was strict about not communicating through the media, which he learned from Bud Grant long ago.
“I said [to Wilson]: ‘You won’t hear a peep from me and you can do that too and just let go of the stuff that is said’ but it’s hard. It’s hard for people, and not everyone can do it. It takes real discipline to do that, and it’s learning [process]and hopefully Russ will get better and better for it because he’s been through a lot of it, and hopefully other people can learn from it too. The power comes from really knowing the truth and knowing what was going on. … The truth is that it has not been traded and is on our list and has signed up here for a long time. Everything that could ever take place was so far out that it could ever happen, that it wasn’t even worth considering. “
Carroll said he regularly seeks input from Wilson and other players, and that the quarterback never demands that he have more control over staff movements. Sources have told ESPN that Wilson’s frustrations have extended beyond passport protection and his perceived lack of say in acquisitions when compared to other top quarterbacks. Wilson also wanted more of Seattle’s offense to go through him, a subject covered in a story by The Athletic.
As reported in this story, Wilson stormed out of a meeting with Seahawks coaches last season out of frustration that his proposals to fix the team’s sputtering offense had been rejected.
Shortly after The Athletic story was published, Wilson’s agent Mark Rodgers told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that, while Wilson had not requested a deal, he had only requested a deal with the Bears, the New Orleans Saints, the Dallas Cowboys and the Las Vegas Raiders would accept if Seattle was this to treat him. Wilson has a no-trade clause in the four-year $ 140 million extension he signed in 2019. This deal still has three years.
“I had made a very clear statement to Russ: ‘Let’s just switch off and deal with this stuff,'” Carroll said when asked about speculation about Wilson’s future when Rodgers gave Schefter the list of acceptable trade targets. “We don’t need to say anything, we know the truth about what’s going on. When that came out, that sort of thing was overdone by opening up some other conversations that didn’t have to take place. That was an example of why we’re silent and…” why we don’t say anything. It was so meaningless because it had nothing to do with what was going on. There was another little byte there for people to talk about and I wish we’d avoided that is what I say. “
A source told ESPN that Wilson was working to get Chris Carson back to Seattle. He celebrated Carson’s return on Twitter and did the same with several other moves on the team in the free agency.
“Right now he’s jacked up like never before,” said Carroll. “He’s about to turn our new offensive stuff, which is different from the past and which we need to learn. He’s totally behind and doing a great job, his mentality is strong and his conditioning is right. He’s doing a great job. So we were Things have been said, things have been said. And sometimes you have to deal with things and that’s how we go about our business. We’re in a fantastic place right now and we’re very excited about this team and this season and this design is coming and all that. “
When asked about Wilson’s long-term commitment to the Seahawks and vice versa, Carroll reiterated that they didn’t act on him and that they “plan to keep him here for a while.”
With regards to passport protection, Carroll said the system Seattle is installing under new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron will help by highlighting faster throws, among other things. He declined to elaborate on why he and his former OC Brian Schottenheimer broke up after the season.
Carroll named Pro Bowl Safety Jamal Adams in this year’s draft as the number 1 of the Seahawks. This is a clue to how Seattle ditched a package of draft picks last summer, including this year’s first and third place in the New York Jets trade.
Both Carroll and Schneider talked about Adams being part of the team’s future. Adams enters the fifth and final year of the rookie deal that Seattle inherited from the Jets. Schneider said Adams had given the team no indication of whether he would play off his current deal, which comes close to $ 10 million in salary. A source told ESPN that the organization has confidence that a long-term renewal with Adams will be carried out this off-season.
“We want to have him here for the long term,” said Schneider. “We’re really glad we made this deal to get it. It will be a very important part of our future.”
Schneider said he couldn’t talk about the end of the defensive. Aldon Smith’s recent arrest related to an alleged second-degree battery in Louisiana added that the trial must continue. When asked about Smith’s past, which includes a domestic violence allegation, Schneider alluded to a blanket statement he made years ago about how the Seahawks would avoid players involved in such incidents and said he have since learned that “every situation is completely different and you have to.” study each situation and be satisfied with your decisions. “
“The last time we researched it with Aldon,” he said. “It was a minimum wage deal and we decided to give it a try.”
